Assessment of Livelihood Security and Diversification of Tribal Dairy Farmers in NEH Region of India

Abstract

Indian economy is heavily reliant on agriculture and livestock. Approximately two-thirds of rural communities rely on livestock for their livelihood. Livestock has traditionally been an integral part of the framing community of Tripura. The rearing of cattle, pigs, poultry, and other livestock provides livelihood support to the rural masses in the state. The present study was conducted in Tripura during 20221-22 with objective to analyse access the livelihood security and livelihood diversifi cation of the farmers practicing dairy farming. For data collection, three districts (West Tripura, Khowai, and Sepahijala) were selected by the purposive sampling method. Out of total 12 selected villages, a sample of 120 dairy farmers were chosen for primary data collection. The access the livelihood security consists of 7 subindicators viz. Food security, Economic security, Health security, Education security,Social security, Infrastructural security, and Institutional security. The fi ndings of the study indicated that there is infrastructural security 78.28 per cent contributed the most to improving the overall livelihood security of farmers, whereas social security 28.33 per cent contributed the least to improve the overall livelihood security of farmers. Majority of respondents had medium 'Livelihood Diversifi cation (67.50%) while 36.7 per cent were found in the category of low 'Livelihood Diversifi cation'. Only 0.83 per cent of respondents in the study area were motivated to highly diversify their livelihoods. Income and land holdings were found to be signifi cant associated variables with livelihood diversifi cation.